[Biochemical] Aussie boffins create "unhackable" data transfer

Aussie boffins claim to have created a virtually unhackable data transfer.

While we know people have made this claim before, we have to admit that this technique strikes us as pretty secure, as your average script kiddie rarely has access to quantum states.

Currently systems use classical light to carry information which hackers can easily tap into.

However it is a little harder to copy the information encoded in quantum states without being noticed by the system.

Apparently single photon devices will ensure communication and information systems are secure from hackers, "guaranteeing peace of mind for the users."

The boffins work for the Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) nodes at Sydney and Macquarie universities.

They have created a pair of photons using a device just 100 microns long which means that hundreds could be used on a single computer chip, which could help make quantum computing a realistic endeavour.

In a press release, Michael Steel, CUDOS chief investigator said he had generated individual pairs of photons in the smallest device ever by slowing light down using silicon photonic crystals.

At 100 microns long CUDOS's quantum photon device is 100 times smaller than the one-centimetre devices used by other groups.

He said that: "We are able to do this by slowing light down through the use of silicon photonic crystals, which means the ultrashort device behaves as a much longer device, so that the photons are generated in only 100 microns".

The shorter the device, the less chance that the photons have from being stepped on by a cat which is potentially alive or dead.